Chapter 2
LIAM
Liam Armstrong ignored his phone buzzing in the pocket of his jeans and knocked on the blue front door as he hitched the toddler he was carrying further onto his shoulder, wincing at the weight.
The boy seemed to get heavier every few days, which might be something to do with his current obsession with buttered toast. Charlie Armstrong let out a low moan and Liam froze, just as the front door opened and his neighbour, Jenny Musgrave, shrieked in delight.
‘Oh, the dear boy’s asleep,’ she whispered, her voice pantomime low, which meant it was loud enough to wake an actual log. ‘Give him to me, I haven’t had a cuddle in days.’ She clapped her hands and rubbed them together excitedly, her wrinkled face lighting up.
‘It’ll be much easier for both of us if we don’t wake him,’ Liam whispered, nodding towards the hallway of the house which he noticed she’d already decorated with tasteful white fairy lights.
He didn’t even know if he owned any and made a mental note to look later, if he wasn’t too comatose from tiredness.
God, he’d have to get a tree soon too. No way was Charlie going to let him get away with no decorations for another year – and he wouldn’t believe the dog had eaten them either, which is what Liam had told him last December.
‘Oh, I don’t mind if he wakes. I’ve made a batch of brownies just in case,’ Jenny said lightly. ‘Nothing like a dose of sugar to get the party started.’
Liam chuckled because he knew his neighbour was joking – at least he hoped she was. ‘Yes, well, maybe I should carry him in, that way we can put him straight to bed,’ he suggested. ‘He’s not really in the right mood today. Unless your party involves throwing plates.’
It had taken him almost an hour to get the grizzly toddler to settle.
Despite Liam advising Jenny that it would be better if his son didn’t know about the sleepover, she’d insisted on telling him, too excited to keep it a secret.
Then again, he knew at almost seventy his neighbour didn’t get out as much as she should, and babysitting for his son every Tuesday evening was the highlight of her week.
For a moment, Liam realised that aside from the joyful hours he spent with Charlie, he did nothing exciting in his life either. One of his customers had commented that he was getting boring yesterday and he’d dismissed it – but perhaps he was right?
‘I’m sorry.’ Jenny pressed a palm to her mouth, clearly trying to contain her enthusiasm.
‘It’s just – it’s the first time he’s stayed here, and I haven’t had anyone for a sleepover in the spare room for almost a year.
Not unless you count my brother’s pet hamster, but he wasn’t much fun.
No parties or plate throwing and he wouldn’t even eat the brownies I made. ’ She looked disappointed.
Usually, Jenny babysat for Charlie in their house which was next door, but Jenny’s cousin was due to pay her a visit this evening and she’d wanted to stay in her own home.
Since she was doing Liam a big favour, he wasn’t going to argue.
But he knew he’d pay for it later in the shape of a sleepless night when he tried to transfer his son back to his own bed and Charlie insisted on sharing with him.
‘It’s fine,’ Liam whispered, glancing back at his house.
He’d left the front door wide open – afraid that closing it might wake his son – and his dog Figgy was staring at them from the threshold looking baffled.
‘I won’t be long,’ he mouthed to the golden retriever, wondering if he was losing his mind when the dog’s ears seemed to prick up in understanding. Sometimes it felt like it.
‘This way.’ Jenny signalled that Liam should follow her up the stairs, which had also been decorated for the season, before leading him into a single room.
He lay the sleeping boy carefully in the bed, holding his breath when Charlie snorted and then yawned.
Liam started to breathe again when the yawn turned into a low snore.
He felt his phone vibrate in his pocket again and ignored it.
He couldn’t risk answering and waking Charlie, but who was calling so insistently?
He stood straighter and looked around. The room was cosy, with blue curtains and a carpet to match.
Liam noticed the duvet cover featured a festive Thomas the Tank Engine and wondered if the older woman had bought it specially.
She was the closest Charlie had to extended family.
Liam’s had either passed away, or, well, he wasn’t going to think about what else had happened.
Which was fine because he didn’t want or need anyone else.
Getting close to people brought complications and he had enough of those as it was.
‘I won’t be late,’ he said, leaning down to press the edge of his face to the boy’s and breathing in his scent.
He smelled of strawberry toothpaste and blueberry bubble bath – Charlie’s current favourites.
Ironically, in the manner of all contradictory four-year-olds, he wouldn’t touch either fruit in its natural form.
‘The meeting isn’t meant to take that long. We’re just ironing out a few details.’
Jenny shook her head, her white bouffant barely moving.
Liam wasn’t sure whether to admire or fear her immoveable hair.
He knew Charlie loved it because he’d found something similar on one of his LEGO Minifigures and had promptly renamed it Granny Jenny before giving it pride of place on the table next to his bed.
‘Take as long as you like and don’t feel like you have to rush back,’ the older woman told him as they slowly made their way back down the stairs.
‘I mean, if you wanted to go out for a drink or something. There are many, many very attractive single women in Hollythorpe.’ She stood in the porch, the bulb above lighting her face.
‘You’re too young – and far too handsome – to be spending every night in alone.
’ She flushed, the beam from above accentuating her now luminous cheeks.
It wasn’t the first time Liam had heard this.
‘And I’m perfectly happy to babysit whenever you want. ’
‘I’m fine,’ he said firmly. ‘I’m not looking to have a relationship.
I have a very full life with plenty of pulls on my time already.
’ As if to confirm it, Figgy let out a bark from the doorway of his house and his mobile simultaneously began to ring.
He let it go to voicemail. He’d check the message soon.
Someone was clearly very determined to get in touch.
‘See.’ He jerked his chin as he backtracked out of the door, almost forgetting the backpack that was still slung over his shoulder.
He slid it off and handed it to her. ‘This has got everything Charlie needs. LEGO, dinosaurs, his blanket. I put in an emergency storybook – although I’ve already read him three. ’ He grimaced. ‘If he wakes just—’
She waved a hand. ‘You’re on the end of a mobile and probably only a ten-minute drive away. Relax, love. This isn’t my first rodeo.’ She patted him gently on the arm looking sympathetic, which made him feel pathetic and lonely and a million things he didn’t want to feel.
‘I’m sure that despite my advanced age I can handle a four-year-old.
If he wakes, I’ll try to keep the vodka tonics and brownies to a minimum and we’ll only watch the first Final Destination movie, I promise.
It is the best one.’ She grinned wickedly and he laughed, perhaps for the first time in weeks.
‘Right, okay, great.’ He backed out onto the pathway that led to her front door and looked up when snow fluttered onto his cheeks. ‘We prefer Peppa Pig, but I guess it’s almost the same.’
She nodded sagely. ‘All those muddy puddles just waiting to swallow you up.’ Her grin grew. ‘Bye, Liam,’ the older woman sang. ‘I’d say please do everything I wouldn’t do, but I’m guessing that’s going to fall on deaf ears.’ She shook her head and then stopped and gave him a long look.
‘But jokes aside, forgive me for overstepping and know I only have the best of intentions.’ Her blue eyes pinned him, and even the Christmas lights twinkling behind her didn’t lighten the intensity of the moment.
‘You’ve buried yourself away in that house for far too long. Mia left two and a half years ago…’
‘I know,’ Liam said softly even as his stomach pitched.
He wasn’t grieving the end of their marriage, that had passed a long time ago – and in some ways he’d never had the partnership he’d craved.
But he was sad his son had no mother; that the life he’d envisaged hadn’t turned out the way he’d expected it to.
‘Make time for yourself. I’m here and there are plenty of others in the village who would be too.
’ Jenny’s mouth pinched. The red lipstick that she always wore had leaked into the tiny creases surrounding her lips making her look older and wiser.
‘We all need someone special – especially at Christmas.’
Liam nodded. He wasn’t going to argue. Especially not with the woman he relied on for his one night off.
And he liked Jenny. A lot. She was the kind of person he wished he was related to.
Someone kind and warm, someone who would do anything for anyone, someone who understood loyalty.
That was the type of person he was trying to be so he could teach Charlie what a good man was.
But after a day of working and helping where he could, or after a day of caring for his son, there wasn’t enough left in the tank for anything else.
Flirting was fine and he enjoyed the pure joy of playful banter, the slow roll in the pit of his stomach when someone noticed him and he noticed them right back.
But he definitely wasn’t going to get seriously involved with another woman. Not a chance.
He stood on the threshold between the two houses as Jenny shut the door and searched his pocket for his mobile just as it buzzed again, signalling he had a voicemail.
He sighed and nodded to Figgy before holding the phone to his ear, expecting to hear from a customer.
He sometimes got urgent calls after hours.
Instead, a man’s gravelly voice whispered, ‘Merry Christmas, I hope you’re ready for a big surprise!’ before the message cut off and the phone fell silent.
Liam frowned as Figgy barked. ‘Wrong number I think. At least I hope it was. I don’t like surprises,’ he said before making his way into his house.
He was late and didn’t have time to worry about odd messages in the night – even if a part of him was quite worried about exactly what the mysterious ‘surprise’ might be…